"Although I speak from my own experience, I feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some point which may be suitable for you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you find that it is off no use, then you can discard it." Dalai Lama...

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Changing pool plans and Tent decisions

Plans for the pool have changed.We decided that the area at the top was not suitable.It was going to take far too much effort to level it enough to put the pool on.H has said she will be happy to take it back and sell it, so nothing lost.We will now get a smaller one that we can place nearer the house but without the risk of flooding the neighbours!

One good thing is that we decided it wouldn't take as much to get it level enough to start the work on a new patio:-)We will take down the old trellis that is being held up by some overgrown Ivy and re landscape,open up the top area of the garden.This is where we get the sun most of the day.One ton of sand is delivered tomorrow,so no excuses,we will have to get on with it:-)We are using some slabs we already have in the garden and some gravel we have leftover from a project last year.We also have some large stones from an old stone wall that was near the house and was dismantled for the sun room to go up.

Over the last few weeks I have spent a great deal of time researching tents.

Bearing in mind I have never camped,apart from a week in Wooler with the school when I was 14 and then only because I fancied one of the boys that was going(he looked so much like Donny Osmond!!).

I don't have many good memories about it. I do remember being very cold and damp a great deal of the time and hated the night time trips to the loo.So why camping?Emily finds being away from home and her pets quite difficult to do, so would not be keen to go away often without them and at least this way we could take Beauty most of the time.The tent set up would be a home from home for her and I think as a family it will benefit us all to just get away from the routine and to spend time away from home,to shake us up a little and to try new things.We won't have to travel far initially.We live in a beautiful part of the country and there are so many great places to visit and camping within an hour of home will open up the whole lake district.

I have been saving up throughout the year with a view to going to Greece next year.When we looked at the prices to go for two weeks, we began to question spending thousands of pounds on a couple of weeks in the sun.Much as I love the long sunny days I found it harder and harder to justify spending that kind of money on one trip.Buying a tent and equipment will mean we can go for 4 night breaks every 5 weeks or so and then a couple of weeks in the summer.We aim to go camping in France eventually and who knows maybe even a road trip to Greece could be planned:-)

One of the biggest decisions was whether to go for a smaller weekend type tent with less space or get a bigger tent that would be comfortable and have space to "live" inside as well as sleep.We decided to opt for a bigger tent with all the room we would need to have a comfortable stay in our Great British climate,with the likelihood we would get a smaller weekend tent to go away in if we get the bug:-)We wanted something that would have enough room for us and Emily,Beauty (dog) and a friend or two.Having been in Michelle's Vermont L I knew that the space and attention to detail were the things that were going to make a camping trip comfortable and therefore stand a chance of doing it again:-)

Someone at Al's work was selling an Outwell tent with great living space and three bed pods.Initially to my inexperienced eye it sounded and looked great.I went on to the Outwell site to look in detail.Then Michelle gave me a link to a camping forum and I began to see the light:-)

I loved the space it had but it was very spread out and there were lots of little details that it was missing. The ideal for me was to have an area of enclosed porch to come in to dry off in wet weather and store all the clutter of wet things.I wanted mesh to keep out the bugs and also a good sized living area.

We visited a camping showroom in Keswick to get a feel for different tents,both Alan and I were really impressed with a Robens poly cotton tent but it didn't have all the space we would need,and no enclosed porch area.Back home and lots of research later we narrowed it down to the Outwell Vermont XL and The Norfolk lake poly cotton tent.Still couldn't make a decision and spent many nights searching all the different tent manufacturers websites and the forum tent reviews just to be sure.Whilst browsing the forum site(admit to becoming addicted!)I found so many useful reviews about equipment and LOVED the fact that I could see other peoples tents set up.There wasn't a question that I had that hadn't already been answered.

So here we are, having decided that poly cotton would be the best for us, especially with future plans to go abroad, but wavering slightly about the weight of it,especially if it has to be packed wet,which in the present climate looks quite likely.We would have enough room (just) in the garden to pitch it again to dry it if needed but Alan isn't keen on the "faf" as he calls it.He is slowly coming round to the idea and I have left it up to him to read some of the reviews and get a feel for what camping could give us outside the"faf" ;-)

It is a great deal of money but we would have spent twice the amount on a holiday abroad and we can use the tent for many years to come.Having sourced a Norfolk lake online I am just waiting for Alan to mull things over and for me to just do a little more checking to ensure we do have the right tent!!!

6 comments:

polycotton is better - quieter in the rain too. We have no way of pitching at home though as it is a tremendous weight - takes up more room to store as well.

Also, the colour fades more.

Having said all that, if we had space to pitch at home I think polycotton would have been an investment we would have made - if Marcus could lift it. The tent we have is beyond me and much heavier would be beyond M too.

Does this mean we could talk you into Unschoolers Rock the Campground next year? We would love it. Just think how much fun Drue and Emily would have!We are in the process of putting something together for Miss Emily. Please tell her we haven't forgotten!Have fun camping. We love it so!

Mich,I appreciate your comments cos I know we are on the same page with camping comforts!!The weight has been a big factor in swaying between the Vermont and the Norfolk lake,alongside the better configuration of bed pods in the Vermont!I am under no illusions that it will be easy to pitch or put away but think that overall the experience of being in a polycotton tent will outweigh the difficulties.Obviously never having pitched a tent that is coming from a place of complete ignorance;-)Just have to wait for Al to come to the same conclusion now:-)xx

Jean, would have a bit of a problem getting it all on a plane but would love to come over and camp in America one day! May have to borrow a tent and equipment LOL.xx

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We are on a journey....

After taking our daughter out of school we decided on an autonomous approach and set off full of hope. The journey so far has not always been easy - but it has been worth it. We have our happy, funny, loving daughter back again. It also seems possible this unconventional way of living will change our lives for ever. Would you like to join us on the journey as we grow and learn more about unschooling and what it means for us?

Reclaiming our life.

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When I set about creating this blog The title and blog description just came to me one night.It simply flowed without thought at all.Many months later I discovered John Holt and this quote!!

"A life worth living and work worth doing - that is what I want for all children." - John Holt.

This is me.....

There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad - you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.” Stacey Charter.

Kindness

"This is my simple religion.There is no need for temples; no need for complicatedphilosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." The Dalai Lama.

Karma...

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” Wayne Dyer

A collection of quotes....

Do not ask that your kids live up to your expectations. Let your kids be who they are, and your expectations will be in breathless pursuit... Robert Brault.

'You can't give what you don't have,' some people say, and if you want your children to give generosity and kindness and patience to others, you should give them so much they're overflowing with it. ** —Sandra Dodd

Why we Home educate

( Slightly edited from a blog post I did when we started out) In the end the actual decision to take Emily out only took a matter of days but before that it had been around a year and a half of talking about ti and reading books, Free range education by Terri Dowty, Educating your child at home by Jane Lowe and Alan Thomas were two that had a real impact for different reasons. Free range education has lots of examples of real life home educators and I think I can say that it was this one that convinced me the most that we could do it.We are two very average people ,neither of us left school with many qualifications, we went on to do quite well in our chosen professions and had no need to think about the education system at all until Emily came along.I knew about home education and when Emily was born considered it as an optionbut always felt my lack of education would be a problem and that I wouldn't be capable of providing her with what she would need.Looking back with hindsight it is easy to see how wrong I was!!

School never really suited Emily......After the nursery year at a very highly rated, high achieving school we knew that particular School wasn't for us and took her out. We enrolled her in a lovely village school with only 70 children in the whole school .The ethos of the school was totally different, the children didn't wear uniforms and there was much more emphasis on the children being individuals.The head was a sensitive and principled man who wanted the best for the children. We thought we had struck gold.Over the reception and year 1 Emily gained confidence and really started to bloom. It was at this time she was diagnosed with dyspraxia( we had had to go down the diagnosis route as our observations of Emily's difficulties were not enough to enable the teachers to tailor things so she was helped and given less work in class) but she managed quite well in the more relaxed play orientated early years.Year 2 with more emphasis on academic activities got progressively harder for her. She is very sensitive and it wasn't just the academic side it was the embarassment of having to put her hand up for the toilet,seeing others being told off and worrying in case she did something wrong and got the same treatment, panicking because she couldn't do the work and the teacher never had time to sit with her (alot of this did not come out until she had left school) her behaviour at home became worse and worse she was so angry and obviously stressed . At this time we began to seriously consider taking her out but held back because of my lack of confidence in my ability to provide her with an adequate education ,my health being so poor was also a major stumbling block.

Then in year three it became blatantly obvious that something needed to change .She was struggling on all levels and we couldn't allow the school system to damage our daughter anymore.She became ill with a bug that was doing the rounds and she was off for two weeks , during that time I had a conversation with a friend who home educates her two children and I was so upset I couldn't make a decision and she said just go with whats in your heart and that really helped me to shift my thinking and stop worrying about what I couldn't give her and focus on what I could give her.

We never sent her back.I still get emotional when I think of that time , the look on Emily's face when we told her she would never have to go back to school was priceless,the immense sense of relief that we were off the treadmill of school life and the excitement of the time ahead and to be honest the fear of the unknown......

So here we are four years on and a lot of reading and researching later I feel comfortable with what we are doing . The changes that have happened so far have been helped along the way by the many wonderful blogs out there.They are so varied and there are so many different approaches , I have found ones that I can identify with and have read a lot of archive material that has been written in each and found answers to so many of the questions I have had that they have helped me to sort out what will work best for us .As much as I wish we had done this earlier and saved Emily from the distress that she went through I do believe things happen for a reason and that the time was right for us to take her out and that looking on the bright side one of the benefits is that at least she has had a taste of school and now we all know without a doubt that it is not for us !!!!

It is very liberating to be making decisions based on what works best for us as a family and not what society expects.

About Me

Life really did begin for me at 40! 39 to be precise, when Emily was born ;-).I have been married very happily for 25 years to Alan.I am gradually recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after 12 years and we are home educating our Twelve year old daughter Emily.Whole life Unschooling is the label I would use to help others understand the way we home educate.In practice that means that Emily has free choice to do what she finds interesting at any given time.We believe that learning happens all the time,in her own way and at her own pace and we aim to provide her with things that are interesting and fun for her to do,but accept if she chooses not to do them.We have moved away from set bedtimes and restrictions on food.With our guidance she is learning to listen to her body.Still working on it and by no means "there" yet but enjoying the journey and the unexpected benefit has been the growth Alan and I have gone through having to challenge our thinking about educational/parenting methods.It's all good and getting better by the day.

Home ed group today.We actually managed to get to it this week!! It has been AGES since we made it to a meet up with the group - various rea...

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves."Buddha

I found this at the bottom of my Blog and decided I like it so much it needed to be somewhere I can see it daily ;-))Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in, broadside, thouroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly shouting, 'WOW'.... Beth Moore.

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A few qoutes I like....

Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in, broadside, thouroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly shouting, 'WOW'.... Beth Moore

The perpetual testing of public school children is like a gardener constantly pulling his plants up by the roots to see if they are growing....(unknown)

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instuction...Helen Kellers teacher

I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand...Confusious